Facebook’s plan to acquire mobile messaging service WhatsApp for $19 billion has earned the ire of frustrated media, competitors and industry pundits, and the envy of those VC-backed, revenue-less digital wonders waiting in the wings to be swooped into Google’s or another Silicon Valley giant’s arms.

While cofounder Bill Gates stepped away from the CEO’s job in 2000, handing over the day-to-day running to lieutenant Steve Ballmer, he cannot be blind to the obvious: his legacy is about to be undone. Unless Microsoft gets its product and customer focus right, it will wither on the vine.

Enough time has passed in the annals of mobile for brands and retailers to seek clear-cut answers on some meekly accepted wisdom. Failure to do so will sap budgets in the wrong direction, resulting in lost opportunity costs and decreased customer loyalty.

Extreme leniency from Wall Street, venture capitalists and angel investors in the past two decades has enabled flights of fancy and the launch of ventures that would never have lasted a year in the pre-Internet era.